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Giridih, June 28: A fast track court today awarded life term to Babulal Murmu, an extremist, for his futile attempt to kill former chief minister Babulal Marandi four years ago.

The ninth fast track court of additional district and sessions judge R.D. Yadav pronounced the punishment after hearing 17 out of 18 chargesheeted witnesses.

At least eight prime witnesses, including several police officers and villagers, identified Babulal as one of the attackers. The police had booked Babulal under the Arms Act, too, but the court did not sentence him on that account.

A group of CPI(Maoist) activists had attacked the security personnel guarding Marandi on September 6, 2003, at Sidhwa-Soti in Tisri to kill the former chief minister.

In the ambush, the rebels triggered three landmine blasts and opened fire on Marandi's security forces and killed three persons — constable Claiment Soren and villagers Paura Kisku and Mahendra Sharma.

Babulal, Vishnu Rajwar, Taslumuddin, Ganauri Ravidas and two others were named accused in the case with 200 others in the unknown category.

On November 14, 2003, Tisri police arrested Babulal. Since then, he was under trial in the Giridih court.

Other than the attack on Marandi, Maoists have committed several crimes, including butchering 16 villagers in Bhelwaghati and looting rifles from the homeguard training centre, in the area. But in most of the cases the police had to release the accused persons due to lack of evidence.